Note: The Delhi University digital library is available at http://library.du.ac.in/dspace/. Thanks to Abi for the pointer. Through it one can access all books in the Delhi University library for which the copyright dates are past.

The Chief Minister of Odisha, Shri Naveen Patnaik has inaugurated a Museum Gallery on North East Biodiversity in the Regional Museum of Natural History (RMNH) Bhubaneswar today. The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment & Forests, MoEF Shri Jairam Ramesh, was also present on the occasion. This Museum Gallery depicts the natural heritage of North-Eastern India which includes two of the 34 Biodiversity hotspots in the World: Himalayas and Indo-Burma.

On the occasion, Shri Jairam Ramesh, said that his Ministry would establish two institutions, the National Centre on Wetlands and Marine Biodiversity in Bhubaneswar, and National Centre on Olive Ridley and Marine Biodiversity at Gahirmatha in Odisha.

On the sidelines of the programme the Minster also inaugurated the Fragrance Garden at the Regional office of the Ministry of Environment and Forests. He announced that this would be developed into a Biocultural park. He also announced that the Ministry would make efforts to get a digital copy of Jardin de Lorixa, considered to be the earliest scientific documentation of traditional/ indigenous knowledge about plants of Orissa, of which only one manuscript is available in Natural History Museum Paris (France).

During this occasion brochures on North East Biodiversity Gallery was released by Shri NaveenPatnaik, and on the Museum by Shri Jairam Ramesh. .

… This new gallery on North East Biodiversity is having exhibits depicting Different eco-regions of North East, the course of the mighty river Brahmaputra, Kaziranga –The habitat of one horned Indian rhinoceros, the endemic and endangered avifauna, rich diversity of non human primates, Orchids and rhododendron of North East, New species discoveries from Eastern Himalayas, the hills, waterfalls, sacred groves of Meghalaya and the Loktak lake – a unique habitat of Sangai etc.

From http://www.conservationandsociety.org: "a long forgotten herbal known as Le Jardin de Lorixa ( The garden of Orissa ) and credited to a surgeon named Nicolas L’Empereur in the employ of the French Compagnie des Indes"

SAI International School is a joint venture of Shirdi SAI Education Society, Bhubaneswar and LaurelsGlobal, United Kingdom. They have joined hand to provide education at par with global standard in Bhubaneswar. Expertise of schools of UK, USA, Australia, Dubai and Singapore is made available to the SAI International School by the LaurelsGlobal.

The first day-boarding world school of Bhubaneswar, India’s fast growing infotech city that has attracted global Information Technology (IT) companies such as Tata, Wipro, Infosys, Gempack, Mindtree and Satyam to name a few. Spread on a 5.5 acre land, the school will start classes from April 2008 and would be completed in three phases. The school plans to admit children between the age of 3 and 17.

The Institute of Mathematics and Application (IMA) plans to award as many as 500 scholarships in the fifth Rural Mathematics Talent Search Examination 2007, provided the response is encouraging.

For, lesser than expected turnout has become a reason of concern for all. Last time 200 scholarships were given.

Last year, only about 23,000 class VI students, for whom the test is intended, appeared. Evidently, with 6,000 high schools and 11,000 elementary schools, it was way below reckoning.

Thanks to the lackadaisical attitude of the School and Mass Education Department, thousands of schools simply remained unaware of such an event.

The students remained deprived of availing of an unique opportunity. However, institute Director Prof Swadhin Pattanayak said, the Department has got its acts together this year and has instructed all inspector of schools to reach out to each school with the circular. The test would be held on November 11.

The eligible ones would receive Rs 1,500 per year for five consecutive years. The best among the lot also would also get a chance to participate in the Indian National Mathematics Olympiad.

The scholarship amount is funded mostly by NRIs. The 200 number of scholarships is equally divided among eligible students of East, Central and South Orissa.

In India people who have passed the exams in these three fields can get very good jobs. However, these exams were not (i assume the situation remains the same) offered by specific universities, rather one has study on his/her own, possibly through the help of coaching centers, and pass the corresponding exams. So these exams are more like certification exams. Following are links for additional information on them.

A PIB reports on the setting up of this institute at a cost of 435 crores and when set up this institute will have B.Tech, M.Tech and Ph.D programs and will get the status of an Institute of National Importance.